Texans weaker, but not powerless as D.C. changes hands

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, has developed a close relationship with President-elect Barack Obama and is being considered for a Cabinet post — most likely secretary of Veterans Affairs.

WASHINGTON — Texans have long assumed that the state would be a powerful force in the nation's capital — and for good reason.

Ever since Texas powerbroker Col. Edward M. House went to Washington with President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, the Lone Star State has boasted House and Senate leaders, Cabinet officials and White House confidants, Supreme Court justices, three vice presidents and three presidents.

But as Texan George W. Bush prepares to leave office and pass the reins of power to Illinois' favorite son Barack Obama — and with Texas the reddest large state in an increasingly blue country — the state is experiencing an unprecedented power outage in the capital's corridors of power.

Now, with a relatively junior congressional delegation, two senators from the minority party and a White House brain trust likely to be devoid of Texans, the state of the Bushes and LBJ, Rayburn and Cactus Jack, Tom Clark and Tom DeLay faces a political future with "as little clout as in a century," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

"The days when Texans ran the Congress are over," Jillson said. "And we're not going to have the presidency any time in the near future."

Texas Democrats point the finger of blame at Bush, who is leaving office as the most unpopular president in modern American history, and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who inspired a redistricting plan that cost several senior Democrats their jobs.

"It comes into clear focus now the price Texans are paying because of the partisan folly of the Tom DeLay-driven, mid-decade redistricting," said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, the most influential Texas Democrat in Washington. "Instead of Texans being in charge of the powerful Rules, Agriculture and Homeland Security committees, their jobs now belong to New York, Minnesota and Mississippi."

A few exceptions

While weakened, however, the nation's second-largest state is far from powerless.

And a few Texans are likely to play important roles in Barack Obama's Washington, both inside and outside his administration.

The key Texas player is likely to be Edwards, a moderate known as a champion of American veterans. Edwards, one of four finalists for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, has developed a close relationship with the president-elect and is being considered for a Cabinet post — most likely secretary of Veterans Affairs. But even if he remains in Congress, he will be one of the administration's go-to guys on Capitol Hill and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The Texan most likely to serve in Obama's Cabinet is Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a former Texas A&M president. The president-elect is being urged strongly by lawmakers from both parties to keep Gates, a popular reformer, in place at the Pentagon for at least a transition period.

One of Gates' closest allies is a fellow Texan — Secretary of the ArmyPete Geren, a former Democratic congressman from Fort Worth who has won plaudits for helping to clean up after the Walter Reed medical care scandal.

Two long shots

Two other Texans are long shots for the Cabinet.

Former Rep. Charles Stenholm, a conservative Democrat from Abilene, has been mentioned as a contender for secretary of Agriculture, even though he was an early supporter of Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And Houston Mayor Bill White wins high marks from national Democratic insiders for his management ability and coalition-building politics. Possible roles include secretary of Energy, Homeland Security or Transportation.

"He's one of the moderate Democrats with real administrative skills who can make the government work," Jillson said. "That's exactly the kind of person Barack Obama wants in Washington."

But White, who served as deputy Energy secretary in the Clinton administration, has little interest in returning to Washington, and most Democratic insiders say he'd much rather be governor of Texas.

Several of Obama's closest friends from Texas are likely to get government posts. Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor and Texas secretary of state, was a key campaign surrogate and could end up with a top job in the Justice Department, the Department of Housing & Urban Development or the White House. And state Rep. Juan Garcia of Corpus Christi, a Harvard law school buddy of the president-elect, is expected to land a prime job in Washington or Texas.

University of Texas economics professor James K. Galbraith was an outside economic adviser to the Obama campaign and may continue in that role during the next administration. And a Texas native, University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, could become a top White House economic policy insider. Goolsbee was born in Waco and, though he works in Chicago, his family lives in Abilene.

"There are not lot of policy advisers on the campaign who have dug postholes in the red Abilene dirt," Goolsbee said.

Shape of the future

Obama's Texas friends predict that the new administration will draw a new generation of Texas political activists and policy wonks to Washington — a group that will return to reshape a state that is undergoing a slow but steady demographic shift toward a larger minority population.

In the meantime, the old bulls of the Texas congressional delegation have their work cut out for them.

"We all have to work harder and work together to represent our state," Edwards said.